NAME

distrib.pats - default values for Usenet Distribution header

DESCRIPTION

The file /etc/news/distrib.pats is used to determine the default value
of the Distribution header. It consists of a series of lines; blank
lines and lines beginning with a number sign (‘‘#’’) are ignored. All
other lines consist of three fields separated by a colon:
weight:pattern:value
The first field is the weight to assign to this match. If a newsgroup
matches multiple lines, the line with the heighest weight is used.
This should be an arbitrary number greater than zero. Unlike other INN
files, the order of lines in this file is not important.
The second field is the name of the newsgroup or a wildmat(3)-style
pattern to specify a set of newsgroups. Multiple patterns are not
allowed.
The third field is the value that should be used if this line is picked
as the best match. It can be an empty string.
Programs such as inews(1) that process a user’s posting should consult
this file, typically by using the DDxxx routines, documented in
libinn(3). The intent is that all newsgroups to which an article is
posted be used to index into this file, and the value with the highest
weight should be used as the value of the Distribution header, if none
was specified.

HISTORY

Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is
revision 1.7, dated 1996/09/06.